The Heaven's Tale Shokugeki No Souma Fanfic

Chapter 14 || Edited

Takeshima Rumi's POV

Hall B

Tensed. That is the most appropriate word one could use to describe this atmosphere on stage. If you don't have any backbone, perhaps, you'll get too rattled by this hunger radiating from the other participants like Megumi. I could see her legs shaking as she stood behind her station like a lost sheep. Fortunately, she was just a row and a column away from me while Yuki and Ryoko were on the other side of the block. I was about to close my eyes when the arena started to drown in murmurs from the audience.

"Hey, isn't that Tsukasa Eishi-senpai?"

"Eh? The First Seat? You're kidding. I heard he's not good with crowds."

"I know! But look, he's sitting there at the lounge!"

Back and forth, that same kind and old conversation started to fly between the audience then to the stage. We all looked and followed their line of sight. From my place, I could only see a tiny humanoid speck. I had to squint my eyes to check whether they were telling the truth or not and to my surprise, it was the former. A small smile crept to face as I thought, 'It's good to be part of the upper chain, huh?' I think I just saw him smile and waved his hand before he sat down in one of the VIP seats found in that well-lighted box. I discreetly bowed my head to acknowledge his action and hurriedly put on my poker face to avoid any other misconceptions about us.

"That's Chef Shinomiya, right?"

I heard one of the participants asked the others around him. He was pointing towards the audience where you could visibly see that one little void spot around a single person. When the others took notice of him, there's this one audible cry of glee from one of the female group of the audience. "Eh? Shinomiya as in the GREAT Shinomiya?"

I covered my mouth to choke back this one little laugh I have and when it's about to fail, I wrapped my free arm around my stomach to pinch my side. 'Ah~ that TsunTsun will surely get shy because of that.' I remarked inside my head. I undoubtedly felt the hairs behind my neck standing up and there's only one thing that it meant: he's cursing me from the bottom of his soul.

All of heard the buzzer rang as the clock struck exactly 11 o'clock. We all glanced up at the ginormous LED screen hovering at the ceiling and a second after, the director's face dominated the black pixels.

"Begin cooking!"

=== Timeskip ===

I glanced at the timer shown at the screen then back to my plate. I frowned knowing that I still have roughly around an hour left before the taste test commences. 'I don't have any leisure to wait for the time to run out.' I thought. I gathered all of my courage before walking towards the table of the judges for our group. I bowed to them politely then spoke to the Chief Judge—Senda Orie, COO of Howbee Foods.

"Excuse me, I'm done with my dish. Will it be okay if you'll judge it now while it's hot?" I asked. I could see her hesitate and turned her head to Isshiki-senpai trying to look for an answer that I do not even think that it was written on his face.

"Of course, Takeshima-san." Isshiki-senpai was the one who finally answered my question. His smile never faded nor falter for a second even if the judge was on his heels.

'I salute you.' I mouthed towards him, hoping that he gets my message before going back to my station.

The sound of the rolling cart caught everyone's attention as I pushed the object to the judge's table. As soon as I lifted the lid covering the plates, a flood of smooth aroma filled the entire hall which killed the overpowering stench smell coming from one of the participant's creation. I curtly bowed my head towards them then went back to the cart.